


Your pain is mine

by Imnotweirdjustwriting



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 03:46:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11176353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imnotweirdjustwriting/pseuds/Imnotweirdjustwriting
Summary: Any pain felt by your soulmate you feel too.





	Your pain is mine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [poor_guys_headisspinning](https://archiveofourown.org/users/poor_guys_headisspinning/gifts).



> listen my friend and I basically created Leyna of course I wrote a fanfiction about it for their birthday

Leo Valdez was used to pain. Eight years in the foster system had taken its toll. He'd always been scrawny, an easier target to the other kids. He didn't care about the pain that he felt. 

He cared about the pain that wasn't his.   
He knew logically what it meant. When his arm bled or his face bruised when he knew no one had touched him. The pain was always brief, the marks faded after a few minutes. They weren't his. 

They were his soulmates. 

Leo was always guilty about his soulmate.   
She didn't deserve to feel what he felt.  
Sometimes it kept him up at night, the knowledge that she could feel what he felt. 

There were days when he fought his hardest to get away from bullies. Days when he thrashed and kicked and bit to make sure she wouldn't feel any pain. 

It had been easier when he was younger. She never got hurt back then. Leo had been too young to know that she'd felt anything. 

It was the day his mom died when he realized. The burning across his hands and arms, she could feel it too. 

He'd screamed, cried, panicked the entire night. His mother was gone. He was hurting his soulmate. 

His own family didn't want him at that point. They'd shoved him in the foster system, shoved his pain out of their lives.

The next few years weren't terrible. His first foster home had been okay, but he was too scared of what would happen if he stayed. The next two he didn't like remembering. He'd run away the moment he got a chance. 

It was in his fourth foster home he first felt her pain. He knew she'd been hurt before but this was different. It hurt way worse than the minor scrapes and bruises that had happened before. He'd cried out, the blood soaking his sleeve quickly. He ran away that night, scared of what was happening to her.

The fifth didn't last long either. The injuries from his soulmate became more and more frequent. There were few days he didn't excuse himself to go wash blood off, days when he didn't have to make up excuses for the bruises all over his body. They had gotten too pushy, too questioning about his soulmate, so Leo ran away again. 

It was after his sixth time running away that Leo started to accept the whole soulmate thing. 

Wilderness School with Piper and Jason. He watched them fall in love. The day Jason took a brick to the face Leo had patched up Piper. He'd realized it much sooner than they had. Weeks of Jason wincing each time Piper got hurt, weeks of Leo being the one to wipe the blood off of Piper when Jason went out alone. 

"You know, my soulmate is really clumsy," Piper mused to him one night in the middle of their quest. 

Leo sighed. "Come here," he said. 

Piper looked skeptical but moved towards him. 

"Cut your hand," he insisted. 

Piper's brows furrowed. "What is that supposed to do?"

"Don't you trust me?" He asked, half joking. 

Piper smiled a little bit at him. She took her knife out, slicing her palm open on the blade. 

Jason winced from where he was guarding the perimeter. 

Piper's gaze snapped to him, squeezing her bleeding hand into a fist. "Leo..." she started. 

Leo shoved her towards Jason. "Go talk to him," he said. 

Piper jumped up. Leo watched her show Jason her hurt hand. Jason grabbed her hand with his. Leo looked away when they kissed. 

Dealing with his best friends being soulmates was less painful than Leo expected. The quest was more painful. He worried each time he took a hit, the guilt of hurting his soulmate almost too much.

Finishing the quest was a relief. Leo didn't have to look at how happy Jason and Piper were anymore. 

Piper still pestered him about his soulmate. "What do you know about her?" She asked one day while they were in Bunker 9 together. 

Leo shrugged. "Not much."

Piper hip checked him. "Really? Nothing? Any memorable injuries?"

"She gets hurt a lot, actually badly." Leo lifted his shirt a little bit to show Piper his side. There was a long scar near the bottom of his ribs. "This one bled for hours. I was sure she was dying. It left a scar." He showed her his wrist. "One time it felt like someone was burning my wrist. Actually happens once a year."

Piper gasped a little bit. "Do you think she's a demigod?"

Leo barked out a laugh. "I hope not. She doesn't need that much pain."

Leo didn't mean the pain of battle. He knew she already faced something like that. He meant the pain of growing up, no family, no protection from the terrible things in the world. 

Piper squeezed his hand, dropping the subject of soulmates. 

It was after they set out on the Argo II that Leo learned the truth. 

Camp Jupiter was incredible. Quiet and so much larger than Camp Half Blood. 

It wasn't Leo's fault. The possession from the eidolon. He didn't mean to hurt her like that. 

 

Reyna Ramírez-Arellano was used to pain.   
Even the days on Circe's island were painful. Not for her, just for her soulmate. She remembered excusing herself from meetings, collapsing in the hallway in fear. She knew she was away from her father. She just didn't know what could hurt her soulmate like this. 

The days after the island were full of worry. Every time she hurt herself she thought of her soulmate. He didn't deserve this. Reyna had felt how much pain was in his life already. She didn't want to be including more. 

Camp Jupiter had pushed that fear out of her mind. The day they burned the SPQR onto her arm was the day she started caring about herself. Her soulmate could wait. 

She was forced to care again during the war. She'd been protecting Jason, jumping in front of him and taking a hit meant for him. She knew he wasn't hers. But she couldn't watch him suffer. The sword had sliced across her side. She'd been sure she was going to die. Jason had sat by her all night. They joked about how at least it meant they weren't soulmates. 

Reyna cried when he left, the guilt of hurting her soulmate- her soulmate who wasn't Jason. 

It was easier after the war. She stopped getting hurt so often. Her soulmate made up for it. She didn't go a day without a new injury. 

Jason disappearing numbed her enough to make up for it. She didn't feel anything when he was gone. The pain from her soulmate was nothing like the pain in her head. She knew Jason wasn't her soulmate, but she felt like he was still a part of her. 

The day of his return was also the day she finally met him. 

The boy, Leo. He had fired at her camp, destroying her life and everything she cared about. The moment he had been knocked out, she'd gone down too. Annabeth had caught her. 

Reyna realized a second later. She screamed, wrenching away from Annabeth. He couldn't be. She would never love someone who could attack her camp, attack her home-

"Reyna, I think you need to sit down," Annabeth said, her voice deadly calm. Reyna knew that she knew. Her steely gray eyes were fixed on Reyna like a beacon. 

"I'm fine," Reyna hissed, her arms wrapped around her body. "Come find me when he wakes up. I won't speak to anyone until then."

She stormed off, shutting herself in her villa and away from her soulmate. 

 

Reyna came to see Leo the next day. He didn't know yet. He only knew that his head was throbbing, each beat of his heart painful. 

"You attacked my camp." Reyna said simply. 

Leo winced. "It wasn't me-" he started, panicked. Was she going to hit him? Kill him? What was the penalty for attacking a Roman camp? What would happen to his soulmate?

"I know it wasn't you. I'm here for a different reason." Reyna's hands were clenched at her sides, her nails almost digging in. She couldn't risk him noticing yet and forced herself to unfurl her fingers. 

"What is it?" Leo asked. He didn't want to look at her. She was scarily pretty, stern and cold as marble. 

Reyna's lips were pressed in a thin line. She didn't seem like she wanted to talk. 

"Reyna, what is this about?" Leo's voice had the slightest tinge of panic. He tried to hide it with a grin, but Reyna wasn't even paying attention. 

"Look," she said. She held her arm out for Leo to look at. He could only see the SPQR tattoo and four lines under it. 

"What am I looking at?" He asked, confused. 

"The tattoos. They were burned on."

Leo's hand clutched his wrist without thinking. He could remember, each year, the burning. "Why are you showing me this?" He asked instead of what he wanted to. 

Reyna's voice was much gentler now. "You know why."

Leo shook his head. "No, I can't, it can't be-" he was clutching at his arms, protecting her from himself. 

Years of pain were crashing back. He'd almost destroyed her home. He couldn't be responsible for so much pain in her life. 

"Leo," she said. She grabbed his shoulder, her nails digging in. She winced, pulling away to hold her own shoulder. 

"No, Reyna, I can't. I'm sorry I can't do this, I can't do this to you." Leo was trying to joke, to hide it behind humor like he always had. He couldn't. 

"What do I have to do to prove it, Leo?" Reyna asked. 

Leo shook his head. "Don't hurt yourself."

Reyna frowned. "How else will you believe me?"

Leo took a shaky breath. "I believe you, I do. I just wish I could've know earlier. All the pain I've caused you, and now this."

Reyna touched his arm. "This wasn't you. If you're willing to we can work this out."

Leo nodded. "I can try my best." 

Reyna exhaled, visibly relaxing. "Good. Until then you can tell me stuff other than the injuries. I know you stubbed your toe earlier."

Leo laughed somehow. "I know you got a paper cut on the way over here."

Reyna almost shoved him. "I was distracted!" She protested. 

Leo smiled at her. She smiled back. 

Maybe they could work with each other's pain.

**Author's Note:**

> The first and final straight fic I ever post. 
> 
> This was mostly a joke but it was worth it


End file.
